Here is How to Stay Hydrated When Hiking

How does the lack of water affect your body?

• .5% water loss – Increased strain on the heart
• 1% water loss – Reduced aerobic endurance
• 3% water loss – Reduced muscular endurance
• 4% water loss – Reduced muscle strength, fine motor skills, and heat cramps
• 5% water loss – Heat exhaustion, cramping, fatigue, and reduced mental capacity
• 6% water loss – Physical exhaustion, heatstroke, and coma

You can lose up to 60 ounces of water per hour when hiking in 90° heat. That’s about 4% of the body weight of a 150 lb male.

Emma Greguska, ASU

Stay hydrated when hiking. Like, for real.

Don’t put yourself, your health or others at risk for something as simple and common sense as maintaining proper hydration in the backcountry. You have so many other things to concentrate on, such as taking in the epic views, setting up killer instagram-worthy camp sites and not becoming bear food. Drink plenty of water and urge others to follow your lead.

Hydration Calculator

The best way to get an idea about how much water YOU should bring with you is by paying attention to your personal hydration loss. Use this method to get a baseline for the amount of water you should be bringing with you.

1. Weigh yourself before you go on a hike – Drop the boots, backpack, hiking poles, camera, and sunscreen. Get down to your skivvies and hit the scale. (example: 160 lbs)
2. Take a note of how much water you bring – To make this super easy, fill up your Nalgene or bladder all the way. We will subtract the amount when you’re all done so we know exactly(ish) how much water you consumed. (example: 2L of water)
3. Take a hike – wherever, however long. It’s your world, man.
4. Weigh yourself again – Hit the scale again and take note of your weight. (skivvies only again!) (example: 158lbs)
5. Calculate weight loss – Subtract your After weight from your Before weight to see how much was lost. (example: 160lbs – 158lbs = 2lbs)
6. Get out the calculator – Multiply your starting weight by 0.01. (example: 160lbs x 0.01 = 1.6lbs)
7. Now, what does that number mean? – I NEED TO BRING MORE WATER. You want those 2 numbers to be the same, OR you want the final number to be greater – which means you are properly hydrated.
   • Let’s break it down:
   • On this hike, I drank my entire water supply of 2L and was dripping sweat. Granted, I live in Phoenix and it was 108° outside with no shade. For my numbers, my weight loss was 2 lbs, and 1% of my starting body weight was 1.6 lbs.
   • 2lbs > 1.6lbs. As a result, I know that I need to bring more water in order to stay 100% hydrated. Ideally, about 2.5L on a hot day like that.

EXTRA CREDIT : Here’s a test that can be done at home:

• Empty your bladder (pee!)
• Chug about 3 cups of water
• Measure how much you pee an hour later (take a guess-timate!)
• If you peed less than 1 cup, you were dehydrated

The point of that super fun exercise to take notice of how you felt before and after the experiment. Did you feel dehydrated? Brain fog? fatigue? Did it clear up? Were you able to notice that you actually were in need of some water? It could be surprising to most of us that we are actually in a constant state of dehydration without ever knowing it.